Isaac 

(Sir)  Newton (1642-1727) England

Newton was an industrious lad who built marvelous toys (e.g. a model windmill powered by a mouse on
treadmill). His genius seems to have blossomed at about age 22 when, on leave from University, he
began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, dynamics, thermodynamics, acoustics and
celestial mechanics. He is most famous for his Three Laws of Motion (inertia, force, reciprocal action)
and Law of Universal Gravitation. As Newton himself acknowledged, the Laws weren't fully novel:
Hipparchus, Ibn al-Haytham, Galileo and Huygens had all developed much basic mechanics already,
and Newton credits the First Law itself to Aristotle. (However, since Christiaan Huygens, the other great
mechanist of the era and who had also deduced that Kepler's laws imply inverse-square gravitation,
considered the action at a distance in Newton's universal gravitation to be "absurd," at least this much
of Newton's mechanics must be considered revolutionary. Newton's other intellectual interests included
chemistry, theology, astrology and alchemy.) Although this list is concerned only with mathematics,
Newton's greatness is indicated by the wide range of his physics: even without his revolutionary Laws
of Motion and his Cooling Law of thermodynamics, he'd be famous just for his work in optics, where he
explained diffraction and observed that white light is a mixture of all the rainbow's colors. (Although his
corpuscular theory competed with Huygen's wave theory, Newton understood that his theory was
incomplete without waves, and thus anticipated wave-particle duality.) Newton also designed the first
reflecting telescope, first reflecting microscope, and the sextant.

Although others also developed the techniques independently, Newton is regarded as the Father of
Calculus (which he called "fluxions"); he shares credit with Leibniz for the Fundamental Theorem of
Calculus (that integration and differentiation are each other's inverse operation). He applied calculus for
several purposes: finding areas, tangents, the lengths of curves and the maxima and minima of
functions. In addition to several other important advances in analytic geometry, his mathematical works
include the Binomial Theorem, his eponymous numeric method, the idea of polar coordinates, and
power series for exponential and trigonometric functions. (His equation   ex = ∑ xk / k!   has been called
the "most important series in mathematics.") He contributed to algebra and the theory of equations,
generalizing Déscartes' rule of signs. (The generalized rule of signs was incomplete and finally resolved
two centuries later by Sturm and Sylvester.) He developed a series for the arcsin function. He
developed facts about cubic equations (just as the "shadows of a cone" yield all quadratic curves,
Newton found a curve whose "shadows" yield all cubic curves). He proved that same-mass spheres of
any radius have equal gravitational attraction: this fact is key to celestial motions. He discovered
Puiseux series almost two centuries before they were re-invented by Puiseux. (Like some of the
greatest ancient mathematicians, Newton took the time to compute an approximation to π; his was
better than Vieta's, though still not as accurate as al-Kashi's.)

Newton is so famous for his calculus, optics and laws of motion, it is easy to overlook that he was also
one of the greatest geometers. He solved the Delian cube-doubling problem. Even before the invention
of the calculus of variations, Newton was doing difficult work in that field, e.g. his calculation of the
"optimal bullet shape." Among many marvelous theorems, he proved several about quadrilaterals and
their in- or circum-scribing ellipses, and constructed the parabola defined by four given points. He
anticipated Poncelet's Principle of Continuity. An anecdote often cited to demonstrate his brilliance is
the problem of thebrachistochrone, which had baffled the best mathematicians in Europe, and came to
Newton's attention late in life. He solved it in a few hours and published the answer anonymously. But
on seeing the solution Jacob Bernoulli immediately exclaimed "I recognize the lion by his footprint."

In 1687 Newton published  Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, surely the greatest scientific
book ever written. The motion of the planets was not understood before Newton, although
theheliocentric system allowed Kepler to describe the orbits. In Principia Newton analyzed the
consequences of his Laws of Motion and introduced the Law of Universal Gravitation. (In this work
Newton also proved important theorems about inverse-cube forces, work largely unappreciated until
Chandrasekhar's modern-day work.) The notion that the Earth rotated about the Sun was introduced in
ancient Greece, but Newton explained why it did, and the Great Scientific Revolution began. Newton
once wrote "Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of
things." Sir Isaac Newton was buried at Westminster Abbey in a tomb inscribed "Let mortals rejoice that
so great an ornament to the human race has existed."

René  Déscartes (1596-1650) France

Déscartes' early career was that of soldier-adventurer and he finished as tutor to royalty, but in between
he achieved fame as the preeminent intellectual of his day. He is considered the inventor of analytic
geometry and therefore the "Father of Modern Mathematics." Because of his famous philosophical
writings ("Cogito ergo sum") he is considered, along with Aristotle, to be one of the most influential
thinkers in history. He ranks #49 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History.
Déscartes developed laws of motion (including a "vortex" theory of gravitation) which were very
influential, though largely incorrect. His famous mathematical theorems include the Rule of Signs (for
determining the signs of polynomial roots), the elegant formula relating the radii of Soddy kissing
circles, and an improvement on the ancient construction method for cube-doubling. He improved
mathematical notation (e.g. the use of superscripts to denote exponents). He also discovered Euler's
Polyhedral Theorem (V - E + F = 2).

Déscartes has an extremely high reputation and would be ranked higher by many list makers. I've
demoted Déscartes partly because he had only insulting things to say about Pascal and Fermat, each
of whom was more brilliant at mathematics than Déscartes. (Some even suspect that Déscartes
arranged the destruction of Pascal's lost Essay on Conics.) Déscartes' errors may have set back the
cause of science, Huygens writing "in all of [Déscartes'] physics, I find almost nothing to which I can
subscribe as being correct." Moreover the historical importance of the Frenchmen may be slightly
exaggerated since others, e.g. Wallis and Cavalieri, were developing modern mathematics
independently.

Leonhard  Euler (1707-1783) Switzerland

Euler may be the most influential mathematician who ever lived (though some would make him second
to Euclid); he ranks #77 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His
colleagues called him "Analysis Incarnate." Laplace, famous for denying credit to fellow
mathematicians, once said "Read Euler: he is our master in everything." His notations and methods in
many areas are in use to this day, Euler was the most prolific mathematician in history and is also
widely regarded as the best algorist of all time.

Just as Archimedes extended Euclid's geometry to ma rvelous heights, so Euler took marvelous
advantage of the analysis of Newton and Leibniz. He gave the world modern trigonometry. Along with
Lagrange he pioneered the calculus of variations. He was also supreme at discrete mathematics,
inventing graph theory and generating functions. Euler was also a major figure in number theory,
proving the divergence of the sum of prime reciprocals, finding both the largest then-known prime and
the largest then-known perfect number, proving e to be irrational, proving that all even perfect numbers
must have the Mersenne number form that Euclid had discovered 2000 years earlier, and much more.
Euler was also first to prove several interesting theorems of geometry, including facts about the 9-point
Feuerbach circle; relationships among a triangle's altitudes, medians, and circumscribing and inscribing
circles; and an expression for a tetrahedron's area in terms of its sides. He also made several important
advances in physics, e.g. extending Newton's Laws of Motion to rotating rigid bodies. On a lighter note,
Euler constructed a particularly "magical" magic square.

Euler combined his brilliance with phenomenal concentration. He developed the first method to
estimate the Moon's orbit (the three-body problem which had stumped Newton), and he settled an
arithmetic dispute involving 50 decimal places of a long convergent series. Both these feats were
accomplished when he was totally blind. (About this he said "Now I will have less distraction.") François
Arago said that "Euler calculated without apparent effort, as men breathe, or as eagles sustain
themselves in the wind."

Four of the most important constant symbols in mathematics (π, e, i = √-1, and γ = 0.57721566...) were
all introduced or popularized by Euler. He did important work with Riemann's zeta function   ζ(s) = ∑ k-
s
   (although it was not then known with that name or notation). As a young student of the Bernoulli
family, Euler discovered the stiking identity   π2/6 = ζ(2)   This catapulted Euler to instant fame, since
the right-side infinite sum (1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + ...) was a famous problem of the time. Among many
other famous and important identities, Euler proved the Pentagonal Number Theorem (a beautiful little
result which has inspired a variety of discoveries), and the Euler Product Formula     ζ(s) = ∏(1-p-s)-1  
where the right-side product is taken over all primes p. Perhaps his most famous identity is the one that
unifies the trigonometric and exponential functions:   ei x = cos x + i sin x.

Some of Euler's greatest formulae can be combined into curious-looking formulae for π:   π2   =  
- log2(-1)   =   6 ∏p∈Prime(1-p-2)-1/2

Joseph-L ouis (Comte de)  Lagrange (1736-1813) Italy, France

Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia) was a brilliant man who advanced to
become a teen-age Professor shortly after first studying mathematics. He excelled in all fields of
analysis and number theory; he made key contributions to the theories of determinants, continued
fractions, and many other fields. He developed partial differential equations far beyond those of D.
Bernoulli and d'Alembert, developed the calculus of variations far beyond that of the Bernoullis, and
developed terminology and notation (e.g. the use of f'(x) and f''(x) for a function's 1st and 2nd
derivatives). He proved a fundamental Theorem of Group Theory. He laid the foundations for the theory
of polynomial equations which Cauchy, Abel, Galois and Poincaré would later complete. Number theory
was almost just a diversion for Lagrange, whose focus was analysis; nevertheless he was the master of
that field as well, proving difficult and historic theorems including Wilson's theorem (p divides (p-1)! +
1 when p is prime); Lagrange's Four-Square Theorem (every positive integer is the sum of four
squares); and that n·x2 + 1 = y2 has solutions for every positive non-square integer n.

Lagrange's many contributions to physics include understanding of vibrations (he found an error in
Newton's work and published the definitive treatise on sound), celestial mechanics (including an
explanation of why the Moon keeps the same face pointed towards the Earth), the Principle of Least
Action (which Hamilton compared to poetry), and the discovery of the Lagrangian points (e.g., in
Jupiter's orbit). Lagrange's textbooks were noted for clarity and inspired most of the 19th century
mathematicians on this list. Unlike Newton, who used calculus to derive his results but then worked
backwards to create geometric proofs for publication, Lagrange relied only on analysis. "No diagrams
will be found in this work" he wrote in the preface to his masterpiece Mécanique analytique.
Lagrange once wrote "As long as algebra and geometry have been separated, their progress have
been slow and their uses limited; but when these two sciences have been united, they have lent each
mutual forces, and have marched together towards perfection." Both W.W.R. Ball and E.T. Bell,
renowned mathematical historians, bypass Euler to name Lagrange as "the Greatest Mathematician of
the 18th Century." Jacobi bypassed Newton and Gauss to call Lagrange "perhaps the greatest
mathematical genius since Archimedes."

Georg Friedrich Be rnhard  Riemann (1826-1866) Germany]

Riemann was a phenomenal genius whose work was exceptionally deep, creative and rigorous; he
made revolutionary contributions in many areas of pure mathematics, and also inspired the
development of physics. He had poor physical health and died at an early age, yet is still considered to
be among the most productive mathematicians ever. He was the master of complex analysis. He
applied topology to analysis, and analysis to number theory, making revolutionary contributions to all
three fields. He introduced the clarifying notion of the Riemann integral. Riemann's masterpieces
include differential geometry, tensor analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, the theory of functions, and,
especially, the theory of manifolds. He generalized the notions of distance and curvature and, therefore,
described new possibilities for the geometry of space itself. (As an example of how original and prolific
Riemann was, long after Weierstrass became famous for showing a nowhere-differentiable continuous
function, it was noticed that Riemann had mentioned one in a lecture several years earlier.) Like his
mathematical peers (Gauss, Archimedes, Newton), Riemann was intensely interested in physics. His
theory unifying electricity, magnetism and light was supplanted by Maxwell's theory; however modern
physics, beginning with Einstein's relativity, relies on Riemann's notions of the geometry of space.

Riemann's teacher was Carl Gauss, who helped steer the young genius towards pure mathematics.
Gauss selected "On the hypotheses that Lie at the Foundations of Geometry" as Riemann's first
lecture; with this famous lecture Riemann advanced Gauss' initial effort in differential geometry,
extended it to multiple dimensions, and introduced the new and important theory of differential
manifolds. Five years later, to celebrate his election to the Berlin Academy, Riemann presented a
lecture "On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity," for which "Number" he
presented and proved an exact formula, albeit weirdly complicated and seemingly intractable.
Numerous papers have been written on the distribution of primes, but Riemann's contribution is
incomparable, despite that his Berlin Academy lecture was his only paper ever on the topic, and
number theory was far from his specialty. In the lecture he posed the "Hypothesis of Riemann's zeta
function," (ζ() was defined in Euler's mini-bio) which is now considered the most important and famous
unsolved problem in mathematics. (Asked what he would first do, if he were magically awakened after
centuries, David Hilbert replied "I would ask whether anyone had proved the Riemann Hypothesis." The
Riemann Hypothesis "simply" states that in all solutions of ζ(s = a+bi) = 0, either s has real
part a=1/2 or imaginary part b=0.)

Despite his great creativity (Gauss praised Riemann's "gloriously fertile originality"), Riemann once
said: "If only I had the theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough."